The earned seat
Discover what it takes to thrive in a leaner, faster, and more strategic market by positioning yourself as a "non-design" design leader.
This course is no longer available.
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Course overview
Don't let your seat at the table get pulled out from under you!
The transformation of the tech market is forcing an evolution of design leadership.
A "non-design" design leadership practice will accelerate your effectiveness. In this course, you'll address problems and opportunities that transcend design alone—learning how to position yourself as an executive, set goals and priorities, get alignment, and execute—all through a customized design practice.
You're a great fit for this course if...
01
You find the shift to executive leadership more challenging than you expected, and the right kind of support is hard to find.
02
You've had rapid career growth, and encounter situations as a leader that you've never experienced before.
03
You're ready to take the next step in your leadership journey, and you might not even know what that is!
What you’ll get out of this course...
An understanding of non-design leadership.
By pulling from shared practices, you'll learn how to practically integrate design leadership with other disciplines.
An developed opinion on when design adds value—and when it doesn't.
You'll be challenged with your assumptions on how design should work. In doing so, you'll be able to adeptly solve problems and make decisions rapidly.
A customized plan for your role and priorities.
You'll develop a personal strategy for your unique situation, customizing how you approach your teams, priorities, communication, and project execution.
A refined practice of critical thinking and solution development.
By the act of working through practical applications in this course, you'll be able to better diagnose new problems and customize solutions as scenarios arise.
Meet your instructor
Jasmine Christensen
Jasmine Christensen
Jasmine is a seasoned executive with experience at Intercom, Dropbox, Udacity, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Facebook.
Jasmine has spent the past ten years building, managing, and leading large design organizations.
Before being an executive leader, she worked as a product designer and has spent time as a design instructor at the Academy of Art San Francisco.
Course syllabus
3 live sessions • 45 lessons • 2 projects
Week 1
- 📄
⭐️ Instructor Welcome [Doc]
Complete by Jul 24 - 📄
⭐️ What to Expect [Doc]
Complete by Jul 24 - 📄
⭐️ Class 1 Agenda
- 📄
✅ Foundational Hypotheses [Video]
- 📄
✅ Foundational Hypotheses [Doc]
- 📄
⭐️ "Team #1" by Patrick Lencioni [Video]
Complete by Jul 25 - 📄
✅ First Team Concept [Blog post]
- 📄
✅ What is your First Team [Blog post]
- ✍️
⭐️ Defining your first team [Toolkit]
Submit by Jul 25 - 📄
✅ 5 Steps You Can Use To Build a “First Team” Mindset [Blog post]
- 📄
✅ Defining Roles and Responsibilities Drives Team Productivity [Blog post]
- 📄
✅ Roles, responsibilities, and resources: best practices in managing people [Blog post]
- 📄
🧐 The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni [Book]
- 📄
🧐 Organizational Design: A Complete Guide [Blog post]
- 📄
🧐 Leading through uncertainty: A design-led company, Brian Chesky, Config 2023 [Video]
- 📄
🧐 About being design-led [Doc]
Jul
25
Class 1
Class 1
Week 2
- 📄
⭐️ Differences Between Managers and Executives [Doc]
- 📄
⭐️ Responsibilities of a Design Executive | Checklist [Toolkit]
- 📄
⭐️ Prioritization process | Worksheet
- 📄
⭐️ A 4-Step Process to Help Senior Teams Prioritize Decisions
- 📄
✅ First Principles Thinking: How to Think Like the World’s Best Leaders
- 📄
✅ The magic of goal setting: A simple framework for managers and teams [Toolkit]
- 📄
✅ To perform at your best, focus on goals not tasks [Blog post]
- 📄
✅ The magic of goal setting: A simple framework for managers and teams [Toolkit]
- 📄
🤔 A Manager's Guide to Successful Strategy Implementation [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 Smart vs. Healthy
- 📄
🤔 Connecting business strategy to development reality [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 The healthy organization construct: A review and research agenda [Scientific review]
- ✍️
Define your responsibility and goal
Submit by Aug 7
Aug
1
The Earned Seat | Class 2
Class 2
Week 3
- 📄
⭐️ How to think like an executive [Doc]
- 📄
⭐️ Differences between goals & tasks [Doc]
- 📄
✅ How to Align Individual, Team, and Organizational Goals for Success [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 How to write SMART goals [Blog post]
- 📄
⭐️ What is Strategy [Doc]
- 📄
⭐️ Components of a Strategy [Doc]
- 📄
✅ How To Write A Strategic Plan That Gets Results + Examples [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 Think Like an Executive [Blog post]
- 📄
⭐️ Eight Ways to Communicate Your Strategy More Effectively [Blog post]
- 📄
⭐️ Qualities of good communication plans [Doc]
- 📄
⭐️ Thoughts from the Field - Issue #22 - Overcommunicating and the Curse of Knowledge [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 How To Communicate Like A Leader [Audio/Blog post]
- 📄
✅ The Key To Successful Communications: Refine And Repeat [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 How to Communicate Effectively to Your Team with Patrick Lencioni [Video]
- 📄
🤔 Bob Baxley, Leadership Lessons From The Apollo Program [Video]
- 📄
🤔 Shaping design vision [Blog post]
- 📄
🤔 Thoughts on Design Vision [Doc]
- 📄
🤔 To Sound Like a Leader, Think About What You Say, and How and When You Say It [Blog post]
Aug
8
The Earned Seat | Class 3
Class 3
Week 4
Course schedule
~4 hours per week
Tuesdays
1:00pm - 2:30pm EST
The live class will be 90 minutes per week and will include presented content, discussion, and workshops.
Weekly projects
~2 hours per week
You can expect to spend 1-2 hours outside of class expanding and personalizing solutions to the topics at hand.
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you